The disclosure relates generally to additive manufactured components, and more particularly, to additive manufactured components including sacrificial caps, and methods of forming components including sacrificial caps.
Components or parts for various machines and mechanical systems may be built using additive manufacturing systems. Additive manufacturing systems may build such components by continuously layering powder material in predetermined areas and performing a material transformation process, such as sintering or melting, on the powder material. The material transformation process may alter the physical state of the powder material from a granular composition to a solid material to build the component. The components built using the additive manufacturing systems have nearly identical physical attributes as conventional components typically made by performing machining processes (e.g., material removal processes) on stock material. However, because of the advantageous process, the components formed using additive manufacturing may include unique features and/or complex geometries that are difficult or impossible to obtain and/or build using conventional machining processes.
However, the capability of being able to easily form unique features and/or complex geometries results in new and/or additional manufacturing difficulties or issues. Specifically, the entire component formed using additive manufacturing may experience high tensile residual stress during the build process and/or during post-build process (e.g., machining, surface treatment, heat treatment, and the like). Additionally, unique features, such as channels formed through components, complex geometries, such as intricate curvatures in components, and/or thin walled sections, such as a section of the component formed between a channel and an exterior surface, may increase the high tensile residual stresses in specific portions of the component during the build process and/or during post-build processes. For example, during a shot peening process or a recrystallization process, the unique features and/or complex geometries formed in the component, and the exposed surface of the component surrounding the unique features and/or complex geometries, may increase the high tensile residual stress experienced by the component. The experienced high tensile residual stress may exceed the strength of the material used to form the component, and as a result, defects may be formed in the component. That is, defects (e.g., cracks, material deformation, material degradation, etc.) may form in the component during post-processing as a result of the high tensile residual stress experienced by the unique features and/or complex geometries, and surface of the component surrounding the unique features and/or complex geometries. Defects formed in the component can ultimately reduce the operational performance and/or the operational-life of the component, require undesirable maintenance, and/or necessitate complete component replacement.